Rendering GoPro 720HD 60fps into YouTube

So I've been googling this a bit and cant seem to find the right answer. I'm trying to render 720 video at 60fps from my GoPro using Sony Vegas 10. I edit my videos in Sony Vegas and render it into 720 60fps MP4 format. When I try to upload this video onto Youtube, it looses a bit of quality.

all online video will get down stepped to 30fps... the 60 is good for recording slow motion and getting a bit higher detail, but when rendered out you need to step it down in software before uploading to get the best quality. also note with U-tube they super compress the video at first but it gets multiple passes and will improve over the first 1/2 day or so.

Solidfish,
This is just my opinion, some may do things differently. But just keep it at its highest quality possible when you export it first of all and have a "self contained" file. I work on a Mac as well, but this is universal. So if you shoot 720p 60fps on your GoPro HD, then make sure your sequences match those settings and when you export it, the file should be relatively large. For example, it should be at least 1500Mb (1.5Gb) file for around a 4 minute movie typically more. I use Apple Intermediate Codec, but Vegas should have some similiar codecs to keep it high quality like that . You should definitely not have some like 400mb file or so for a 4 minute movie, etc. Then find out what is the largest file size YouTube will accept. If it is like 1Gb, then that is plenty to compress to and upload a 1Gb file. I usually compress mine down to H.264 which is basically MPEG4 Layer 10. Many PC and Mac systems support H.264. I will typically still keep the 720p at 60fps and then use around a 10000kbps (10mbps) bitrate for the quality and around 96-128kbps for audio (AAC typically). Quicktime has tons of settings. I can show you some stuff that i typically use if you like. But that will compress a 1.5-2Gb file to around 400mb or so. Then you can upload that to YouTube. Then when you watch it on YouTube it will have various settings to watch it at... 480i, 720p, 1080p, etc. Just depends on what you do with it when it is exported and then compressed. It is all up to you really. YouTube then does what it wants. I use YouTube but then i am not really happy with it sometimes. I have been using Vimeo more lately. Plus users can download the original file you upload, if it was 400mb, then it looks pretty decent.
Hope that helps.

Solidfish,
I usually compress mine down to H.264 which is basically MPEG4 Layer 10. Many PC and Mac systems support H.264. I will typically still keep the 720p at 60fps and then use around a 10000kbps (10mbps) bitrate for the quality and around 96-128kbps for audio (AAC typically). Quicktime has tons of settings. I can show you some stuff that i typically use if you like. But that will compress a 1.5-2Gb file to around 400mb or so.

So this is getting a bit technical..

I currently render to 720p 60fps MP4 (the same quality my gopro records at). This is using Sony Vegas. The rendered video looks just as good as the original (except the audio doesnt play through Windows Media Player even though its there once uploaded onto youtube - but this is a separate issue).

The quality looks ok on youtube, but its not close to the original rendered video. I can especially see the difference on fast motion videos. Example here:
<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/cVY1bOYoUy8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I can upload that MP4 file directly to youtube (its like 1.6gb but youtube still takes it). I know youtube has their own compression algorithm. Are you saying its better to compress the file before uploading to youtube? If so, wouldnt youtube compress the compressed file??

Solidfish,
You sound like you are doing things fine.
If you file looks great on the export and is around 1.6gb, that sounds right.
The fact that you can't hear audio when playback on your computer sounds odd though. Check what codec you are using for the audio on your export. Maybe Windows Media Player is missing that audio codec or something. Try another player as well. Try Quicktime for Windows. Free. It should play on your computer, just the fact that after you upload it to Youtube and then the audio is there means there is a problem with the audio codec most likely within Media Player.

I personally think your video on Youtube is fine by Youtube standards and the compression they use. You will never get it to look like your original file. You have to remember they have their own compression that needs to take in bandwidth for players around the world and different types of connections, internet speeds, etc. If everyone was on like a T1 line and those fast internet speeds, then they could just have really good compression and everyone could playback any file size no matter what. You will always be able to pick apart the videos with fast motion. They probably just use a single pass on the compression and don't take into consideration a double pass VBR or CBR (Variable or Constant Bitrate, etc). So dont worry about it too much. I use Vimeo a lot more because it does most of the stuff that Youtube does and people can download my original file with has decent quality.
I think if you watch that video above in 720p quality, it looks pretty good for Youtube.

If you want to check out some of my videos on Vimeo, check them here...

Solidfish,
This is just my opinion, some may do things differently. But just keep it at its highest quality possible when you export it first of all and have a "self contained" file. I work on a Mac as well, but this is universal. So if you shoot 720p 60fps on your GoPro HD, then make sure your sequences match those settings and when you export it, the file should be relatively large. For example, it should be at least 1500Mb (1.5Gb) file for around a 4 minute movie typically more. I use Apple Intermediate Codec, but Vegas should have some similiar codecs to keep it high quality like that . You should definitely not have some like 400mb file or so for a 4 minute movie, etc. Then find out what is the largest file size YouTube will accept. If it is like 1Gb, then that is plenty to compress to and upload a 1Gb file. I usually compress mine down to H.264 which is basically MPEG4 Layer 10. Many PC and Mac systems support H.264. I will typically still keep the 720p at 60fps and then use around a 10000kbps (10mbps) bitrate for the quality and around 96-128kbps for audio (AAC typically). Quicktime has tons of settings. I can show you some stuff that i typically use if you like. But that will compress a 1.5-2Gb file to around 400mb or so. Then you can upload that to YouTube. Then when you watch it on YouTube it will have various settings to watch it at... 480i, 720p, 1080p, etc. Just depends on what you do with it when it is exported and then compressed. It is all up to you really. YouTube then does what it wants. I use YouTube but then i am not really happy with it sometimes. I have been using Vimeo more lately. Plus users can download the original file you upload, if it was 400mb, then it looks pretty decent.
Hope that helps.

This is an old thread but I ran across this problem recently. I too have a 720p 60fps video. I rendered it in Sony VEgas Pro 12 at the same settings and it gives me 262 mb for a 3:33 video. Why is it so small in size? The quality seems alright, but of course once uploaded to Youtibe or Vimeo all fast action looks crappy.

This is an old thread but I ran across this problem recently. I too have a 720p 60fps video. I rendered it in Sony VEgas Pro 12 at the same settings and it gives me 262 mb for a 3:33 video. Why is it so small in size? The quality seems alright, but of course once uploaded to Youtibe or Vimeo all fast action looks crappy.

Depends on the video compression format I think. With mp4 I get small file size too, but with H.264 6:30 in 1080p 30fps is around 1.5gb. I use Adobe Premiere Pro CS6.

This is an old thread but I ran across this problem recently. I too have a 720p 60fps video. I rendered it in Sony VEgas Pro 12 at the same settings and it gives me 262 mb for a 3:33 video. Why is it so small in size? The quality seems alright, but of course once uploaded to Youtibe or Vimeo all fast action looks crappy.

Open up your video in something like Quicktime and hit Command + I or just "get info" on the settings. Check what codec you are using. The codec and bitrate used are in direct relation to the file size.
If you are using H.264, then expect a small file size for a 3.5 min movie.
Read up on codecs, there is a lot to learn.